Razor blades are typically made from a continuous strip of stock material that is hardened and sharpened while the strip travels along a processing line. The strip is then divided in blade length sections used in the manufacture of individual razor cartridges.
In some applications, blades are supported on bent supports that are slidably mounted in the cartridge housing to move up and down during shaving. For example, FIG. 1 shows cartridge 10 with blades 12 slidably mounted in housing 14, and FIG. 2 shows a blade 12 on a support 16. In these applications, the blades cannot overlap and thus have a small dimension “a” from the cutting edge 18 to the back edge 20. The strip material and blade sections, however, must have a sufficient distance from the front edge to the back edge in order to properly secure and hold the material and sections during processing and attaching to blade supports. It thus is necessary to remove a portion of the blade material after processing and attaching so that the blade will have the desired small dimension from the cutting edge to the back edge. In some applications, the rear section 22, shown in FIG. 3, is removed by bending the rear section 22 between 60° and 90° with respect to the front section 24 after the front section has been attached to the blade support. FIG. 3 also shows spot weld 26, used to attach blade 12 to support 16. There typically is an upturned portion at the rear edge 20 of the attached blade section where the rear section has been removed. In some cases the rear section 22 is not easily removed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,475, a method of manufacturing razor blades is described in which the strip material is offset to provide a portion 22 that is easier to remove.